The flower wasn’t meant for her. It was a red carnation, the color of passion, and she didn’t expect it to fall into her lap. A breeze caught it on the way to some lady or another and deposited it next to her clasped hands. She stared down at it, then up at the knight who threw it. He hesitated before tilting his head in a slight nod and riding onward.
“What was that for?” Her brother, his red face and slightly slurred words proof he was more than a little bit drunk, leaned in from the side to look at the carnation as well.
“Nothing. It was just a mistake,” she said quietly.
“Well, get rid of it. We don’t want Lord Tomley to think he has competition.”
She waited until her brother had turned away, and then she slid the flower up her sleeve. She didn’t know why she tempted fate by keeping it. Maybe some whimsical desire for a different fate propelled her. Either way, she hid the flower from her brother and looked out on the crowd.
“Lady Eglantine, what a pleasure to find you here,” Lord Tomley said a little too loudly. He had finally arrived, almost at the end of the celebration. She had hoped he might not arrive at all.
She opened her mouth to speak, but her brother got there first. “Lord Tomley, there you are. Come, have a drink with me!” She sighed as the two men walked off together and tried to cheer herself up by looking out over the jousting arena.
The knights the king had chosen for the final joust entered the ring then. One was the knight whose flower she held close to her skin. She felt a kinship with this knight who had erred the way she so often erred, so she cheered for him. Somehow, the knight picked her out of the crowd and bowed in his saddle to her. She felt her cheeks heat at the show of chivalry.
The knight’s armor gleamed in the midday sun, and his tunic of red and gold was bright and bold. His face was stern and grave, and his eyes were flinty. He raised his lance to cheers from the crowd. The opposing knight’s colors were blue and green, and parts of the crowd cheered for him, too.
Eglantine leaned forward in her seat as the two knights faced each other across the arena with their lances and shields at the ready. Eglantine’s knight lowered his face shield, but she could still see his eyes reflecting shards of sunlight.
The crowd quieted as a squire held up a red flag in the center of the arena, and then people burst into shouts as the flag dropped and the knights galloped toward each other. Eglantine held her breath, but it was to no avail. Both knights’ lances shattered upon impact, and they rode to opposite ends of the arena to regroup. They charged again, and again came away unscathed. The third time, Eglantine’s knight took a blow, and she gasped as he fell from his horse. The other knight dismounted and unsheathed his sword.
“Get up, get up,” Eglantine muttered with her hands clasped tightly in front of her chest. Her knight rose to all fours, then his knees as the other knight advanced. “Quickly now,” she whispered as her knight gripped the hilt of his sword and got unsteadily to his feet.
The two knights exchanged blows, and the crowd roared as they struck and parried. Men and women leapt to their feet, and Eglantine got up as well in order to have a better view of the fight. “Let him win,” she said to no one in particular as the fight went on. “Let something in my life be a victory today.”
The knights exchanged particularly vicious strikes, and her knight staggered to the side. Eglantine’s hands flew to her mouth as the other knight took the opportunity to slash at her knight’s side.
The blow landed, and the crowd groaned and exclaimed as blood shone on the other knight’s blade. The battle to first blood had ended, and Eglantine’s knight had lost. Eglantine’s heart swooped, and her stomach clenched into a knot of worry as her knight was escorted to the edge of the arena and then in the direction of the healer’s tent.
Eglantine felt something draw her in the direction of the parting knight’s back. She rose jerkily from her seat and bobbed and weaved through the crowd in a fight to keep her knight in sight. She found him walking slowly down a side path toward the healers, and she followed from a distance. He disappeared behind the flap of a tent, and Eglantine dithered outside. It seemed too forward to follow the knight to his place of healing and introduce herself, but she felt connected to this knight who had worked so hard with so little to show for it.
For once in her life, she decided, she would be brave. She strode forward and brushed open the tent flap to let herself inside. There wasn’t much to the interior save for a few cots and boxes of supplies. The knight sat on one of the cots and allowed a healer to take off his armor enough to get at the wound on his arm. He looked up at the sound of Eglantine’s footsteps, and she froze, transfixed by the intensity of his stare. Brave, she thought, be brave. This might be the last time she could wander a fair freely before her life changed irreversibly. She wanted to experience all the day had to offer.
She stepped closer. The knight watched her approach with slight curiosity while the healer tutted over the wound. “I saw you fight,” Eglantine began. She winced internally as the words came out of her mouth. He might not feel so great about that fight, she thought regretfully.
A faint smile flitted across the knight’s face. “What’s your name, milady?”
“Eglantine Merril, of Westbrook.” She curtsied.
The knight inclined his head but went no further at a dark look from the healer. “Robert Riesen, fifth regiment, at your service.”
Eglantine nodded, then cast about for anything more to say. Flustered, she came up with, “I caught your flower.” She fished it out of her sleeve to show him. It was a little squished now but still beautiful. “Did you mean to give it to someone else?” she blurted out, overcome with curiosity.
The knight half laughed, half sighed and ran his free hand through short brown hair that was still matted from his helmet. “It was, but the intended lady likely wouldn’t have appreciated it. She certainly wouldn’t have come down here to see me, as you have.” He smiled up at Eglantine and motioned to the cot across from him. “Won’t you sit, Lady Eglantine?”
Eglantine’s eyes caught on the dimples the knight’s smile revealed, and her stomach fluttered. Silently, she sat down. The healer finished cleaning the knight’s wound with a great sigh. “There, at least now your arm won’t rot off -” the healer broke off as a man supporting another staggered into the tent.
“Please help, he’s bleeding!” the man beseeched the healer.
The healer scowled and muttered, “Jousts.” He gave Eglantine a measuring look. “Here.” He dropped some gauze into Eglantine’s hands. “Make yourself useful and bind his wound while I have a look at this latest fool.”
Eglantine looked down at the gauze as the healer bustled off, and then she looked up at Sir Robert. He gave her an amused look. “Don’t feel the need to do something just because someone told you to,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
Eglantine didn’t mind being useful. It was something she was rarely allowed to be. She unrolled the gauze and began to wrap the knight’s arm. “Will this injury keep you from your duties?”
Sir Robert huffed. “A scratch like this? Not likely. I’ve got a quest to go on and no time to waste.”
Eglantine looked up and met Sir Robert’s eyes. “A quest?”
“A fool’s errand, most likely, but the king has ordered me to search for a rare herb that reportedly flowers on the mountains to the west of here. It’ll be a long trek through many different lords’ lands, and I’ll have to stop and greet them all on the king’s behalf.” The knight shook his head. “It’ll lengthen the journey, but it will please the people.”
Eglantine thought of the quest, of going to new places and meeting new people, of having a great purpose, and before she knew it, she breathed, “Can I go with you?”
The knight’s eyes widened, and he blinked at her. She stilled with the bandage half wrapped. Now that she’d asked, she found there was nothing she wanted more than to join Sir Robert’s quest. “Please. My family won’t miss me, or if they do, it’ll be for all the wrong reasons. I must escape the future they’re building for me.”
Sir Robert gave her a long look and then rested his hand on hers where she held his bandage. “How could I refuse to come to the aid of such a fair maiden?” He tilted his head to the side. “It’ll be difficult, you know. You won’t always be comfortable. Do you still want to go?”
Eglantine nodded decisively. “Yes.” She finished wrapping the gauze, gave it a pat, and sat back. “There, done.”
Sir Robert bowed from his waist. “My thanks.” He rose from his seat and offered her his unharmed arm. “Shall we be off, then?”
Eglantine felt a wide smile break across her face. The knight looked a little surprised, and then his hard eyes softened. She stood and took his arm. “Yes,” she said again. As Sir Robert raised the tent flap to let her through, she thought to herself, perhaps today had been a victory after all.
K.A. Connolly 